A man and his ship ... and a museum

Michael Welles Shapiro

The Mariners' Museum's blog, Port of Call, called me out a little (and I'm glad they did) in regards to a short (and shorter than I had hoped) writeup of Steven Ujifusa's new book chronicling the life of William Francis Gibbs, designer of the record-breaking Newport News-built ocean liner SS United States. (Don't take my word for it. Read it yourself.)

My article describes an early conflict the tough-as-nails Gibbs had with shipyard management as he oversaw the conversion of a German liner. Specifically, I wrote about Gibbs butting heads with then shipyard president Homer Ferguson.

But Gibbs' story could not be so thoroughly without the help of a resource right here in the Peninsula, the Mariners' Museum. And it wasn't.

As Brian Whitenton at the Port of Call puts it, "unmentioned is that Ujifusa did most of his research for the biography right here at The Mariners’ Museum. In fact, one of Ujifusa’s most frequently consulted sources was explored in a previous blog post that you can revisit HERE."

Indeed Ujifusa's end notes are littered with references to various parts of the Mariners' Museum archives, evidence of the fact that he did plenty of research in Newport News.